This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Facilities which require water for processing agricultural or other products are well known. Sites for production of agricultural and/or livestock products (generally referred to generically herein as “farms”) are also known. Upon completion of the processing operation, or as a result of farming activities, the water is often contaminated with dissolved solids, particles or other contaminants that often render the water unfit for returning to the environment in a manner that meets certain water cleanliness regulatory requirements. For example, regulations often limit the content of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water released from a processing facility or farm to the environment. Dissolved solids are often difficult to remove from water because they are usually small enough to survive filtration. Discharging water having excess TDS levels may cause certain undesirable environmental effects and result in regulatory fines being imposed on the facility, or require expensive and/or energy-intensive systems for treating or reclaiming the water prior to its release to the environment.
What is needed is a system and method for reclaiming water used in a facility (e.g., food processing, agricultural, wine-making, dairy, oil-drilling, etc.) or farming operation to reduce undesirable contaminants (such as TDS) to cleanliness levels that meet or exceed applicable regulatory requirements. What is further needed is a system and method for reclaiming water using renewable or other environmentally-friendly energy sources. What is further needed is a system and method for reclaiming water that advantageously disposes of biomass waste and also provides thermal energy as a byproduct for use in other applications.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for reclaiming water from a processing facility, operation or farm through the use of environmentally-friendly energy sources and that disposes of biomass waste and provides thermal energy as a byproduct for use in a wide variety of other beneficial applications.